Attacks Ads Fly in New York Special Election, Lobbyists Love Coffee Shops and More in Capital Eye Opener: May 20

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:

NY-26 RACE CONTINUES TO HEAT UP: Money continues to flow into the special election in New York’s 26th Congressional District in the western part of the state. With the district’s Election Day just four days away, political groups are making their last media buys to influence voters, sending out last-minute mailings and ramping up get-out-the-vote operations.

The election features a close three-way race between Republican Jane Corwin, Democrat Kathy Hochul and Republican-turned-Democrat-turned-Tea-Party candidate Jack Davis. Combined, the three candidates have raised nearly $7 million, with Hochul cracking the $1 million mark in money raised yesterday, including $250,000 of her own money which she has put into the race. Corwin and Davis, meanwhile, have each invested more than $2.6 million of their personal funds into their respective bids.

No outside groups have supported Davis, a wealthy entrepreneur and chief executive officer of the I Squared R Element Company, who is self funding his entire campaign. But Davis has been the target of the most negative ads.

Spending by outside groups cannot be coordinated with any candidate’s own campaign. The graph below shows how much money as been spending by these groups praising each candidate and attacking them.

LOBBYISTS LOVE COFFEE SHOPS: An upcoming hearing will address the allegations that President Barack Obama’s aides have held hundreds of meetings with lobbyists off the record. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on oversight, hosted a hearing on openness and transparency earlier this month and brought up many concerns about the Obama administration that have now led to a follow up.

According to Reuters, meeting lobbyists casually outside of the White House has been a long standing common practice with many of these meetings occurring in the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. However, Stearns argues that Obama is saying one thing and doing another, telling Reuters, “These meetings appear to be in direct contrast to President Obama’s pledge to have the most transparent administration in history.”

By having meetings away from the White House, they do not have to be recorded in the visitor logs. Stearns said the practice of meeting lobbyists at external locations such as a Caribou coffee shop one block away would be reviewed at the hearing.

During the May 3rd hearing, one witness, Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton, said that while the Bush administration had been bad, the Obama administration was worse: “To be clear, the Obama administration is less transparent than the Bush administration.”

White House officials say there are no rules against meeting lobbyists outside of the White House. Obama administration spokesman Eric Schultz argues, “This administration has taken unprecedented steps to increase the openness and transparency of the White House.”

AFL-CIO THREATENING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY? AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will warn Democrats today, saying that workers want an “independent” labor movement that focuses on benefitting the working class not any party or candidate.

According to excerpts of his speech, The Hill reports that the nation’s largest labor federation will focus their 2012 political efforts not on party affiliation but on candidates’ record with labor issues.

“It doesn’t matter if candidates and parties are controlling the wrecking ball or simply standing aside — the outcome is the same either way,” Trumka will say. “If leaders aren’t blocking the wrecking ball and advancing working families’ interests, working people will not support them. This is where our focus will be — now, in 2012 and beyond.”

The AFL-CIO’s political action committee and employees have contributed more than $19.3 million to federal candidates and party committees since the 1990 election cycle, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics. Of that sum, 93 percent benefited Democrats. AFL-CIO members may have given even more, but whether or not an individual donor is a union member is not disclosed in federal campaign finance reports.

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